The weekend festivities of the second and third day of Tuska started a bit later for me, but still managed to start with a bang that resounded for the whole weekend! With a lineup a bit less intense then the first day, there was a lot of room to really observe performances and finally get that summer festival feeling. Both days featured very different genres, but as always with Tuska, there is truly something for everyone, even if that something is as simple as ice cold cider and a cool breeze on a hot day. More...

An expanded band lineup has been announced for the second annual Monster Energy’s Aftershock Festival.

Additions to the Northern California summer rock festival - September 14 and 15 at Discovery Park near downtown Sacramento - include Sunday co-headliner Five Finger Death Punch, along with Testament, Filter, Miss May I, Thousand Foot Krutch, Love And Death, We As Human, Eye Empire, Gemini Syndrome, Girl On Fire, and Butcher Babies.

"We're excited to take the new albums out on the road so fans can hear some of the new music live,” says Five Finger Death Punch vocalist Ivan Moody. “And what better way to kick off our fall tour than with a massive festival like Aftershock?"

The updated daily band performance lineup for Monster Energy’s Aftershock Festival is as follows:

Sweden's Civil War, who just issued the debut full length LP "The Killer Angels" (see review at this location), have been added to the lineup for the Getaway Rock Festival, to be held on August 8-10, 2013 in Gasklockorna, Gavle Sweden. The festival includes appearances from over 60 bands, including System of a Down, In Flames, Deep Purple and Lamb Of God.

The band made the announcement: "We are very happy to announce that we will do a show in Gävle and Getaway Rock Festival on August 10. This year’s line-up includes System Of A Down, Deep Purple, In Flames, Testament, Gojira among others. Furthermore, we want to send out a huge thank you to all of you who supported us with getting our album. We are overwhelmed with the reception you’ve given it, we salute YOU!"

For more information, check out the festival's website over at this location. A preview for the festival can be found here: More...

Testament is currently out on the "Dark Roots of Thrash" tour with Flotsam And Jetsam in support of the band's latest album "Dark Roots of Earth," which was named Metalunderground.com's best album of 2012.

Metal Injection correspondent Rob Pasbani recently interviewed Testament front man Chuck Billy at the Best Buy Theater in New York City on a stop of the tour.

Billy discusses the recent release and how the band wanted to play the entire album from beginning to end, but instead chose to pick a select few tracks to perform live.

He also talks about the influence of Native Americans on his music, especially on the the "Native Blood" video. You can watch the interview at Metal Injection here or through the player below. More...

Overkill has been out on tour with Testament, 4ARM, and and Flotsam and Jetsam. The band has now checked in with the following announcement about dropping off the run due to vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth becoming ill:

"Due to Bobby's ongoing bout with pneumonia, we have regretfully decided to cancel the remainder of our shows on 'The Dark Roots Of Thrash' tour.

"Blitz's condition has gotten slightly worse [after Saturday's show in Worcester, Massachusetts] and he needs some time to get back to 100%. We would like to thank Testament for a great tour and look forward to everyone back on the road soon.

"After some time for recovery, we'll be back out in the spring for our Scandinavian tour. See you then!!"

For more info and to find out about upcoming live shows, head over to the Overkill Facebook profile here.

Bay Area thrash metal legends Testament, who are currently touring the U.S. with Overkill and Flotsam and Jetsam, will record their show at The Paramount in Huntington, NY this Friday February the 15th for an upcoming DVD/CD release.

The band is calling on fans attending this event to make this the craziest Testament show ever caught on camera.

“We haven’t shot a live DVD or CD since our Live in London release and we’ve had two killer albums since then,” commented vocalist Chuck Billy. “We thought it would be cool to put out a live DVD/CD focusing on the last three records (The Gathering, The Formation of Damnation and Dark Roots of Earth) mixed in with a good amount of classics too. Last time we recorded anything live in America was for Live at the Fillmore on the West Coast. This time we thought we’d give the East Coast a chance to show the world how crazy and loud they can be. We’re going to be playing an extra-long 17 - 18 song set, which will be our lengthiest set of the tour. Let’s see all you thrashers stirring it up out there and singing along! See ya!”

Australia's 4ARM has been confirmed as the opening act for "The Dark Roots Of Thrash" tour with Testament, Overkill, and Flotsam And Jetsam, which kicks off tonight at the House Of Blues in Anaheim.

The first four dates will not feature Flotsam And Jetsam on the bill, since the band is busy with the 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise. 4ARM is touring in support of its recent album, "Submission for Liberty," which spawned an official video for the title track. Watch that video after the tour dates.

Metalunderground.com wishes all our regulars and newcomers a happy new year as we look forward to a 2013 full of improvements and hopefully even more awesome metal than the preceding year. The 2011 “best of the year” piece ended up so late it actually became an April Fool’s joke (with “Lulu” of course winning the top album spot), but this time around we’re going to dive right into a retrospective of the last 365 days of metal and how they impacted the scene at large.

Recent years have been fairly uneven for metal, punctuated by stellar releases surrounded by flops and mediocre albums from the big names. We’ve seen the continuing sad decline of some of the oldest and biggest names in metal in the past few years, but 2012 shook that up and was a year where the underground earned a greater focus.

2012 was a highly productive year for several prominent sub-genres (power, prog, and djent all saw a horde of releases from acts both known and unknown), but a little more sparse for others (there were only a handful of symphonic black metal releases by established bands.) Considering the sheer number of albums, EPs, singles, demos, etc. that see the light of day per year, we’re inevitably going to end up overlooking some that were definitely good releases, so please accept our apologies in advance if a band you dig didn’t get a nod. We love all forms of metal, and there’s just no way to cover everything that happened in 2012 in a single article.

While 2012 was an off-year on the release schedule for some of the highest profile acts, there were still plenty of bands in the upper echelons that dropped new material. Metaldom saw albums hit from the likes of Between the Buried and Me, Therion, The Sword, Dethklok, Cradle of Filth, Kamelot, Enslaved, Katatonia, Korpiklaani, Borknagar, and Lacuna Coil. Obviously that alone covers a huge range of sound, and we also got to hear some highly anticipated new material from God Seed, Ministry, Wintersun, Baroness, Meshuggah, Woods of Ypres, and Ex Deo. Some of those ended up being worth the hype, while others didn’t meet the high level of expectation, and below you’ll see how our contributors voted on last year’s releases.

Before we jump into the different categories and winners, I’d like to mention how this was such a good year for bands that mash up genres. Fans of different styles colliding were in for a treat as cross-genre experimentation seems to be becoming more of the norm these days. The Wretched End blended together death and thrash, Diablo Swing Orchestra worked swing music into metal, Kontrust melds pop and metal, Stealing Axion worked through just about every sub-genre that exists, and Nachtblut blurred the lines between industrial and symphonic black metal. It seems like this trend is running strong and cross pollination is going to widen metal fan’s musical horizons and introduce mainstream music enthusiasts into the more extreme stuff. More...

Bay area thrash legends Testament have announced several European tour dates planned for this November/December. The appearances include re-booked shows that had to be rescheduled due to drummer Gene Hoglan’s commitments with his other band Dethklok.

“The Lamb of God and Dethklok U.S. tour had to be canceled and Dethklok re-booked some shows. This has caused some conflicts with a few previously scheduled Testament dates since Gene couldn’t participate in them,” said the band. “Mark Hernandez (ex-Forbidden) will be helping us out but he wasn’t available until November the 25th. So various shows will be staying the same but others may be moved to 2013.”

All refunds for cancelled shows are available at point of purchase. Confirmed appearances as of now are as follows:

Metal Injection & Peavey have premiered another episode of "Louder Education," a new collaborative show starring Testament shredder Alex Skolnick. On the season finale, GWAR front-thing Oderus Urungus talks about celebrity culture, the history of GWAR, and he sets the record straight about his feelings on Megadeth's Dave Mustaine.

At the end of it all, not only does Oderus jam with the kids on the GWAR crusher "Let Us Slay," but Alex Sklonick joins him and the kids for an encore jam of the Testament jam, "The Preacher." Check out the clip below. The entire season of "Louder Education" is also now available for viewing at Metal Injection here. More...

Metal Injection and Peavey have presented "Louder Education," a new collaborative show starring Testament shredder Alex Skolnick, Sound Of Urchin's Chris "Tomato" Harfenist, and the students of T.H.O.R. (Tomato's House of Rock). Each week on the series, a new special guest is invited to Tomato's House of Rock, to discuss their journey in the music business, provide educational tips for the growing artists, and round off the show with a kick-ass jam with the kids.

On this edition, founding Dying Fetus guitarist John Gallagher stops by to talk about his band's beginnings, how the band name was picked, fun anecdotes about dealing with customs, scary moments on stage, and the meaning behind "Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog." John ends the show jamming with the THOR students on the famous track.

Metal Injection & Peavey now present the third episode of Louder Education, a new collaborative show starring Testament shredder Alex Skolnick, Sound Of Urchin's Chris “Tomato” Harfenist, and the students of T.H.O.R. (Tomato's House of Rock).

Each week on the series, a new special guest is invited to Tomato's House of Rock, to discuss their journey in the music business, provide educational tips for the growing artists, and round off the show with a kick-ass jam with the kids.

On this latest edition, SiriusXM Liquid Metal and Ozzy's Boneyard program director and metal personality Jose Mangin comes down to the studio to talk about his path in the metal world, how he landed at SiriusXM, and gives advice to the students about how to get where they want to go. It all ends with Jose jamming with the kids on the Pantera classic, "A New Level."

Check out the clilp through Metal Injection or in the player below. In the next few weeks, the show will also feature guest appearances from:

6:00am. YOU’VE KNOCKED A SCREW LOOSE, a taunting Protestant voice rattles my inner skull in a booze-muddled echo as I lope across a bed of sharp stones and plunge into the frigid river just this side of bare-assed.

The full immersion drowns that pesky voice mid-sentence. Eyes open under water; I find peaceful seclusion for a few precious, bone-chilling seconds.

Confirming the diagnosis as I breach the surface and hoist myself to my feet, waist-deep, skin already tightening from the abrupt system shock, a guy on the beach mutters something to his friend, shoots me a strange glare – did I somehow manage to insult his mom? – and twirls his finger near his temple. Yep.

Whatever. I reinforce the diagnosis and thrust double horns skyward, hoping to give the appearance of a calculated, decisive, tough, metal-inspired action and not the clumsy result of a dare, drowned brain cells, and a liquid blanket.

In either case, this is Metalcamp, and what happens at Metalcamp… gets reproduced (and photographed) on Metalunderground.com.

Metal Injection & Peavey presents Louder Education, a new collaborative show starring Testament shredder Alex Skolnick, Sound Of Urchin's Chris “Tomato” Harfenist, and the students of T.H.O.R. (Tomato's House of Rock).

Each week on the series, a new special guest is invited to Tomato's House of Rock, to discuss their journey in the music business, provide educational tips for the growing artists, and round off the show with a kick-ass jam with the kids.

On this edition, the gang takes a road trip to the Best Buy Theater in New York City to visit with Testament's Chuck Billy & Gene Hoglan, Anthrax's Rob Caggiano, and Death Angel's Rob Cavestany. All the bands discussed music discovery when they were growing up, compared to now, playing music, favorite albums and more. It all culminates with a jam of Testament's "Souls of Black" with Alex Skolnick and the T.H.O.R. Kids.

Watch this second episode over at Metal Injection or in the player below. In the next few weeks, the show will feature guest appearances from:

Metal Injection & Peavey present Louder Education, a new collaborative show starring Testament shredder Alex Skolnick, Sound Of Urchin's Chris “Tomato” Harfenist, and the students of T.H.O.R. (Tomato's House of Rock). Each week on the series, a new special guest is invited to Tomato's House of Rock, to discuss their journey in the music business, provide educational tips for the growing artists, and round off the show with a kick-ass jam with the kids.

On this edition, the gang is joined by Howard Stern show personality and legendary drummer Richard Christy of Charred Walls of The Damned, and formerly of Death and Iced Earth. Richard talks about his humble beginnings, how he got into Death, life on the road and speaks of the benefits of wearing a diaper while going to metal shows. It all culminates with a jam of Death's "Crystal Mountain" by Christy and the T.H.O.R. Kids.

Watch the premiere of Peavey presents Louder Education at this location or in the player below. More...

Bay Area thrash veterans Testament have announced a tour of Europe in support of their most recent release, "Dark Roots of Earth."

Commented guitarist Alex Skolnick: "Our last run in Europe was a blast, with people responding to the new songs as though they're classics. It will be great to return and play a few places we haven't been in a while, such as Austria, Poland and the UK.“

Bay Area thrash metal legends Testament have uploaded part 2 of their behind-the-scenes look at the making of their “Native Blood” music video. Take a look in the player below. You can also check out the full music video itself at this location. "Native Blood" comes off the band's latest album "Dark Roots of Earth," released last month.